Friday, July 24, 2009

Cash For Clunkers: Engine Death

The NHTSA has released instructions for dealers on how they must destroy the trade-in car's engine. Dealers are to replace the engine oil with about 2 quarts of sodium silicate solution, and run until the engine siezes. The sodium silicate in the oil path will heat up, and form a glass-like structure.

For some reason, the thought of thousands of engines running until they die is sort of sad to me. It's like... euthanasia.

Appendix B to Part 599 - Engine Disablement Procedures for the CARS

Engine Disablement Procedures for the CARS Program

THIS PROCEDURE IS NOT TO BE USED BY THE VEHICLE OWNER

Perform the following procedure to disable the vehicle engine.

1.Obtain solution of 40% sodium silicate/60% water.(The Sodium Silicate (SiO2/Na2O) must have a weight ratio of 3.0 or greater.)

2.Drain engine oil for environmentally appropriate disposal.

3.Install the oil drain plug.

4.Since the procedure is intended to render the engine inoperative, drive or move the vehicle to the desired area for disablement.

5.Pour enough solution in the engine through the oil fill for the oil pump to circulate the solution throughout the engine.Start by adding 2 quarts of the solution, which should be sufficient in most cases.

CAUTION:Wear goggles and gloves. Appropriate protective clothing should be worn to prevent silicate solution from coming into contact with the skin.

6.Replace the oil fill cap.

7.Start the engine.

8.Run engine at approximately 2000 rpm (for safety reasons do not operate at high rpm) until the engine stops.(Typically the engine will operate for 3 to 7 minutes.As the solution starts to affect engine operation, the operator will have to apply more throttle to keep the engine at 2000 rpm.)

9.Allow the engine to cool for at least 1 hour.

10.With the battery at full charge or with auxiliary power to provide the power of a fully charged battery, attempt to start the engine.

11.If the engine will not operate at idle, the procedure is complete.

12.If the engine will operate at idle, repeat steps 7 through 11 until the engine will no longer idle.

13.Attach a label to the engine that legibly states the following:

This engine is from a vehicle that is part of the Car Allowance Rebate System (CARS).It has significant internal damage caused by operating the engine with a sodium silicate solution (liquid glass) instead of oil.